#mint-adjacent-vibes

[m0e-ru]

hey its that one guy again. i think if i deserved to see this u do too. big fan of how sad igor looks

oohh my gordness ....... hey customers check this out

[sincerelyamee]

Your Life As A Tokyo Jujutsu High Background Student

| Megumi x Reader | Reader's third year & Gender-neutral |

You had not known Fushiguro Megumi for very long, perhaps a few months at best, but you had already grown fond of the boy. That little sea urchin, with his aloof glare and standoffish body language, was always so irritated with the world. 

He definitely didn’t seem to like you much in the beginning… if he liked anyone at all. He had that palpable “leave me alone” vibe - spiky hair hiding his face, arms habitually crossed in an invisible barrier, one-word answers to attempts at small talk. Anyone else would have taken the hint after a few rebuffs and kept their distance. But not you. 

There was a wariness there, a carefully contained fragility that resonated with your own. You recognized that cold glare all too well, having worn it like armor yourself once upon a time, before Gojo had broken through your walls with his irritating persistence and arrogant cheerfulness.

You knew—beneath the hostile exterior, Megumi was just a boy thrown alone into the cruel world of jujutsu, trying desperately to survive. You could relate all too painfully. So you persisted. Offering your quiet presence like a comforting blanket, you'd hover at the edges of Megumi's personal bubble, reading, snacking, giving him the wide berth he clearly craved. Never demanding attention. During meal time, you would add an extra pudding cup to your tray, then silently offload it into Megumi’s as you plopped down next to him, talking lightly about Gojo’s recent antics as you ate.  In the library, you'd claim the seat beside him, the two of you reading in a comfortable silence broken only by the occasional turn of a page. Now and then you simply occupied nearby space, tapping idly at your phone screen whenever he sought out an empty corner to avoid company. 

Then one day between training sessions he fell into step beside you, wordlessly holding out an ice-cold bottle of mint chocolate milk. Your favorite. From that small olive branch on, a new ease settled into your interactions. His rejection of the pudding cups turned into acceptance turned into quietly waiting for them every day. Rolling eyes at your appearance in the library softened into furtive peeks over book spines to see if you’d come to keep him company. He held himself stiffly at first when you claimed the armchair adjacent to his in the common room, but soon began leaning into your idle chatter on curse techniques.

Most times the two of you spent together were still in silence rather than actual conversation. But the quietness somehow felt warmer now, more intimate than isolating. And every so often, when he thought you weren’t paying attention, you’d notice the flicker of a barely-there smile softening Megumi’s face at something you’d said. In those moments, you felt a fierce affection and protectiveness swell brightly in your chest...

You are a third year student at Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School.

You are Gojo’s most spoiled third year. Not that he has many options, since your classmates have all been suspended.

You are Nanami’s most favorite jujutsu sorcerer thanks to your mutual distaste of the jujutsu world and burning desire for early retirement.

You are Shoko’s most beloved unofficial assistant who does all her paperwork. Don’t let Principal Yaga hear about that though.

You are the first years’ most adored senpai, because Gojo has the audacity to dump most if not all of his teaching responsibilities on you.

But most importantly, you are a background character. Sometimes, they bring you along. Sometimes, you do your own things in the background while watching them doing important, heroic things.

You are no protagonist. You are just here for the ride.

[mamawasatesttube]

other timkonbart-adjacent thoughts that i entertain myself with: the specific vibe of romantic timkon + queerplatonic konbart (who simply don't label it bc they don't feel the need. kon is bart's favorite jungle gym and bart is kon's silly rabbit. what else is there to say?)

kon and bart are just at each other's houses and homes constantly. max loves to talk gardening and farm life with kon, who passes on ma's recipes and tips for his kitchen garden. bart offloads chives (and cucumbers. and zucchini. and eggplants. max for the love of god don't you dare plant that mint) onto kon, who is more than happy to bring by some offerings from the kent family farmer's market stall. bart shows up at the farm all the time just to hang out with kon when he's bored. ma loves to feed him and he loves to eat. it works out incredibly well for the both of them. bart will help himself to kon's closet and sleep in his bed even if kon himself isn't there. this tickles ma pink. at least once kon has made what he calls "the most bitchin' peach cobbler of all time", courtesy of ma's recipe, and bart takes one bite and his entire face lights up and he just launches himself across the room like "bro this is so good i am kissing you on the mouth" and then he does. he's so very aroace but physical affection is good and great and frankly, the peach cobbler is just really that bitchin.

all of which is to say: when kon finally is like soooo ma. im uh. dating one of my friends now :> she's So confused when it's not bart. like... oh, it's... it's not? oh i just thought-- no no tim is very sweet, he fixed the tractor up so well for us, of course i love him! i just, well, i thought you and bart... i've certainly never seen bart perched strangely on the rooftop at half past four in the morning, is all. but you should definitely bring tim around more! that boy is too thin we need to feed him--

[kiestrokes]

For hard hours: skz and ateez if you wanna 👀 and the colour of lingerie you wear that makes their brain go offline 🥵

Stray Kids Fave Lingerie Colors | NSFW

Pairing: SKZ x Gender Neutral!Reader/You/Yn Rating: NSFW. Mature (18+) Minors DNI. Genre: hard hours, headcanon, imagine, smut adjacent. Warnings: cursing?

Sexually Explicit Content: mentions of undergarments, duh 🤪

🗝️ Note: I of course had the most difficulty WITH my bias. But thank you again for the ask drift partner 😘 @chans-room

Disclaimers: This is a work of fiction; I do not own any of the idols depicted here.

Channie - maroon, maybe a sheer one piece with lace embroidery over the nipples to tease him, full garters and matching stockings. I can't get around the thought that this man has a thigh kink.

Lino - a lovely mint green, it's simple satin two-piece set because he doesn't want any distractions from you. But it needs to be tangibly appealing to this little cat, textures are important.

Changbin - idk why, but I imagine him liking a bright purple (like rave purple), almost orchid, something silky, accompanied by black fishnets.

Hyunjin - the set needs to be extravagant, lots of layers to it, removable pieces, peekaboo's, the color...hmmm. Hyun gives classic black vibes, but the designer makes up for the simplicity of the color.

Felix - an icy blue, don't murder me but I am thinking quality velvet teddy with a dramatic floor length gauzy robe that as matching blue fur trim. (on my Marth May Whovier shit again, drift partner)

Han - bright red, strappy two piece that connects to itself, and connects to a choker around the neck. Han loves the straps and gets a little flustered when he struggles to remove them (sorry @minttangerines for adding this delu on a Friday)

Seungmin - fuck it, he's getting lavender. a simple lacey bra and panty set and a matching silk robe when you both get a little shy.

Babybread - light pink, true light pink and not the trending Barbie pink. thinking a long line bra with lighter pink paneling and obvious boning. adorned with flowers.

© COPYRIGHT 2023 by kiestrokes All rights reserved. No portion of this work may be reproduced without written permission from the author. This includes translations.

[ginger-and-mint]

11 & 12, 16 & 17 for the belly ask game please!

11. Do you have any favorite words or phrases relating to the belly?

The word "stomach" itself kinda wrecks me tbh. ^^ "Swollen" is probably my favorite adjective, and "bulging" and "aching" and probably my favorite verbs hehe. And even though they're pretty basic, the phrases "so full" and "very full" can be really really good.

12. Do you like upset tummies? What kinds of scenarios are your favorites?

I would say upset tummies are an Interest-Adjacent Enjoyable Thing, but not actually kinky in and of themselves to me! Like, if a character has an upset tummy from eating too much, that adds the appeal of a kinky scenario for me. But if a character has an upset tummy for other reasons, the vibe is more hurt/comfort or whumpy. Which I still enjoy! but not in a kinky way, y'feel?

16. Are there any guilty pleasures that you don't tend to share as much?

My guiltiest pleasure is emeto as a result of eating too much. ^^' I tend not to explore it as much 'cause I'm still a bit shy about it, but uh. somebody struggling to keep a very large meal down or just feeling sick from how they've eaten is Big Fire.

17. What's something you wish you saw more of?

Is it cheating if I answer Stuffing Content In General? ^^' I feel like the scene is a lot slower than it used to be.

To answer seriously though -- I wish I could find stories with intentional feeding that isn't tied to a dom/sub dynamic. Dom/sub just isn't my thing, but it's pretty much impossible to find any feeding fics that don't frame the act through that lens or use associated tropes and dialogue. My ideal dynamic is more like a collaboration -- the Eating Character wants to eat, the Feeding Character wants to help them. That's basically why I have the Soothing Room in ginger & mint, I'm realizing!

[nonaonann]

The Bats & Birds and Their Favorite Ice-creams + Reasonings:

Alfred: Moose Tracks (People who say his favorite would be plain vanilla/vanilla bean are my mortal enemies. Idc if they're comic writers or whatever, Alfred is so not that guy. Moose tracks, for those who don't know, has a vanilla ice-cream base, with fudge swirls, and chocolate covered peanut butter cups. It's something fun for him, but not too "wild" if you know what I mean.)

Bruce: Rocky Road (Idk man...vibes? I hate the almonds in it but I feel like he likes almonds, like a lot? <- Random hc that is. Plus, whenever any of the others try to say, "Rocky Road? The nuts are gross, why??" Bruce can just add on, "And there's marshmallows.")

Kate: Strawberry Cheescake (This one is just a lot of association at play. Red is her accent? color and also just, her color, and pink is adjacent to red, and Kate seems like such a cheesecake elitist, sorry Kate Kane fans, I'm not retracting my truth, still love the woman, but yeah. Cheesecake is good an all, but it's definitely not my favorite thing in the world, sorry cheescake fans.)

Babs: Pistachio (....VIBES. Yeah, that's my reasoning for the most part. Also, it matches her eyes :^) Also, also, it's so fun to imagine her and Dick having these intense arguments and "wars" over "the better green ice-cream". Spoiler: Babs wins every time and she's the one who starts the conflict because for one, she finds it entertaining, two, she despises mint chocolate chip ice-cream, three, she likes drama lol.)

Dick: Mint Chocolate Chip (Specifically the green colored one. It's one of my top 5, plus, it fits his vibe in a way, it's wacky and bright. Also, it seems to be a somewhat widespread hc for him? I've come across a few fics where it is his favorite ice-cream flavor so glad I'm not alone in this. Also, I imagine he mixes together Mint Chocolate Chip, and everyone elses' favorite ice-creams in a bowl when he feels like it. It of course causes disgust, confusion, and chaos. The only ones of the others' ice-creams that are excluded are Pistachio, Vanilla Bean, and Rainbow Sherbert.)

Jason: Gelato (He strikes me as a Gelato over ice-cream guy. He likes to pick fights over it, a fellow seeker of the drama, like Babs lol. If he were to eat ice-cream ice-cream, probably Pistachio like Babs to egg on Dick for it, or Butter Pecan. I love the hc of him having like, Dad/Old man taste and this is my Dad's favorite ice-cream. Also, if anyone tries to egg on him for it, like, "You are such an old man." "Pecans? Those are gross---" he just adds on, "And carmel." I also like him being similar to Bruce in the overarching narrative way, but also in the little ways way.

Carrie: Rainbow Sherbert (IDK MAN IT’S JUST THE VIBE MATCHING IM PICKING UP. It's colorful, a little loud, a little chaotic, a little bit of a niche one, not a lot of people like it, me included, anecdotal evidence and all that jazz.)

Cass: Birthday Cake | Rocky Road | Cotton Candy (I love the hc? that Cass likes a lot of the things Bruce and or Steph like. <- Babs too, but I have a feeling Cass doesn't like Pistachio nuts for some reason? However, she also seems like a Birthday Cake ice-cream sort of gal. It's fun, it's colorful, it's an interesting contrast to her typical colors and Bat persona, and perhaps a little bit more reflective of her actual personality. When she has the time and a craving, she mixes all three ice-creams together, something she picked up from Dick, and it generally grosses out/confuses/and "angers" people. "Angers" meaning people jokingly get mad over it, like how you pick sides for mundane things and playfully, but veering toward seriously, defend it.)

Steph: Cotton Candy (Another of my personal top 5. Specifically the Thrifty brand. Peak childhood memories are of me mixing this ice cream together---its a sort of marbled thing with hot pink and a vibrant blue---to make it purple. We all know Steph's appreciation of the color and I also can just see her liking cotton candy flavored things.)

Tim: Black Cherry (Another of my top 5. Again...it's mostly for the vibes. Also, there's this really good---and I mean really good, a.k.a. it made me sob sob---fic called "cherry trees in your ribs (cherry trees in mine)" by klixxy on Ao3 that's about Tim & Dick talking about the time where Bruce "died" aka was lost in the time stream or whatever it was. It's a Tim-centric fic and the imagery is so beautiful and vivid, the line delivery makes my bones ache, and it, in my opinion, so perfectly encapsulates the relationship of being so incredibly close to a family memeber, only for something to happen that alters everything and causes that closeness, that relationship you loved and cared for, to never be quite the same. I have so much more to say about it, but this post is supposed to be about ice-cream, so if you have the time, read it and form your own opinion.)

Duke: Vanilla Bean (Are you getting tired of the "idk man...vibes match" answer? Well too bad, cuz that's also my reasoning here. Also, I love the idea of anyone bashing Duke for liking Vanilla Bean ice-cream all like, "Vanilla bean?" "That's so boringgg---" only for Duke to just, absolutely demolish them for their ice-cream flavor, no matter what it is. I'm talking, he's giving insults to these people that years down the line they still remember.)

Damian: Neapolitan (Uh...vibes. SORRY. But uh, it probably annoys him to a significant degree when the layering of all the flavors aren't evenly divided. His favorite sections, from most to least, are Strawberry, Chocolate, Vanilla. Damian's also probably a Vanilla Bean > Vanilla kind of person, so he has words about the vanilla ice-cream typically included in Neapolitan. Upon further consideration, maybe he'd like Matcha flavored ice-cream as well.)

[junewild]

Okay ask game! if I was a perfume what would my top notes, mid notes and base notes be? And for extra credit what would the bottle look like? 🤍🌀 So I did an absurd amount of (amateur) research to answer this. For the base note we're going to want to use Oakmoss. Oakmoss is derived from a type of lichen that grows on oak trees. It has a deep, earthy and woody aroma with some leather and moss undertones. I chose Oakmoss out of the 10 most popular base tones because I was searching for something woody, but a majority of the bases were woody-smoky, woody-sweet, woody-spicy, or not woody at all! Obviously we are angling for woody to represent that autumn complexion and to represent the PNW. The base note is the note that lingers the longest, so once the top and mid notes fade out, the scent lingers woody and earthen and natural like the woods around you.

For top notes, your choices are largely some-variation-on-citrus, mint, or basil. I discarded mints and basil immediately as being too on-the-nose with the wooden and earthy base notes. Too green. From here, it's decided on which flavor of citrus. I landed on Neroli.

Neroli is derived from the flowers of the bitter orange tree. It's sweet and floral, with delicate citrus and honey-like notes. It's considered soothing and calming! I chose this for a couple reasons. I think the honey note probably best fits you out of the multiple citrus-adjacent fragrances, since it has a touch of that deep, grounded scent to mix with the woody and earthen tones of the Oakmoss, but it's still bright and sweet for a first impression that matches your bright first impression. For middle notes, we're looking for something to tie together the woody, earthen mossy Oakmoss with citrusy, honey floral Neroli. Middle notes seem to be largely comprised of two categories: Flowers and Spice. I dismissed the flowers out of hand, most of them are extremely delicate scents I don't think fit you at all or clash with the vibe we already have going on (geraniums? lotus? nah.). Plus I have a hateboner for lavender in general because people sneak it into everything and it's HORRIBLE for your skin.

From here we have spices to select from. I think it'd be pretty easy to go with cinnamon or cloves or ginger, but those didn't feel quite right. They give me the impression of homey-ness (and pie, obviously) although I think the warm tones from spice are definitely in the right direction to tie together the honey-sweet and earthen scents already going on here. What I actually chose was Cardamom.

Cardamom is derived from cardamom seeds (shocking, I know) and it's considered slightly floral, woody, and has a hint of citrus. Perfect for tying in the woody Oakmoss and the floral-citrus Neroli! Cardamom is also sweet, spicy, and warm, which I think is the perfect extra layer to carry this fragrance. It's also considered invigorating and energizing, which I think merges well with the calming top and base scents to give depth and complexity and keeps the mix from being one-note. I also think the spice fits much better for you as a person since it's a little less run-of-the-mill than pie spices, while still being warm and spicy.

So here we have a scent that transitions from flowery, citrus-honey Neroli into flowery, citrus-woody Cardamom, to woody-green, earthen Oakmoss over the duration. Inviting and sweet, invigorating and spicy, and calming and down-to-earth overall.

(If you want to find perfumes that match this description you can go here: https://www.fragrantica.com/ingredients-search/ and input the specific ingredients. The perfumes it generates however likely include additional ingredients and more investigation would be required.) As for the bottle for this, I'd think something tall and slim, clear with a honey-gold topper, with an embossed leaf or vine along the side with the name. A more elegant version of something like this

tiffany i would be on my knees proposing rn if you hadn't already been so clear that you do not want in on my group marriage. but i just need you to know that you are my favorite person in the entire world bar none & my best friend & a genuine fucking delight to everyone who knows you & your research skills are extremely fucking sexy. i am genuinely considering having this made up into a perfume.

to specifically respond:

oakmoss is absolutely Thee correct base scent, thank you. woody-soil is EXACTLY right.

mint & basil are wonderful scents, but they aren't MY scents. i absolutely tend toward citruses. neroli is def one of my favorites, right up there w lemon.

you are 110% correct on the middle notes. i despise floral scents with an absolute passion. they aren't allowed in my house.

(ps: these are exactly the scents that max picked, pretty much word for word. so if both of you say it, then i can't imagine how anyone could disagree)

[mercyisms]

INCREDIBLE, hard agree on all points. I’ve had Church on my tlt playlist from the get-go but always thought of it as a Harrow song so now I need to re-experience it as a John bop. I’m a semi-ironic 3OH!3 fan (unfortunately) but never considered it for tlt… Now that you’ve opened my eyes though, Love 2012 is absolutely my newly-minted-cult-leader!John anthem, especially the lines “flash flash television, give me your new religion” and “cha-ching for your soul, everything must go, kiss kiss on the lips of the apocalypse” which like. C’mon.

oh love it as a harrow song too. i think you've got to funnel the 3OH!3s and adjacent into tlt mix. it is the meme energy a mix deserves. you now can't convince me that john & co (puppeted bodies very much included) didn't all do the fucking cha cha slide one of these cappuccino tuesdays. you're selling me on love 2012 and this whole thing has exposed me to the fact that 3OH!3 is still, inexplicably, making music and so i'm just going to guess, from vibes alone, vampire's diet is relevant here too.

[allthingsscented]

SEMI-ANNUAL SALE HAUL! part of my Christmas gifts from my partner was taking me in and letting me pick out whatever i wanted at SAS ❤️🥰

my reviews so far:

Pumpkin Pie Pocketbac Holder: i wanted this around fall but never got it so i was glad to see it on sale. it’s super cute! 🥧

Pumpkin Car Scent Clip: i’ve been wanting more holiday car clips so i decided to pick this up for next fall 🎃

Pumpkin Apple Room Spray: one of my favorite scents ever, and a fall staple! i had to get a room spray of this since they didn’t have it when i tried to this past fall. it’s a warm pumpkin and apple and my favorite scent as far as candles go at Bath & Body Works! 🎃🍎

Strawberry Snowflakes Hand Soap: grabbed this hand soap to use in february for Valentine’s Day. i think it would make a great scent for that. if you’re curious about the scent check out my previous post!

Love Always Wins Candle: i do really love this scent for summer and never got it in the candle! the packaging is also so cute for Pride Month! if you’re unfamiliar with the scent it has sangria fruitiness to it with an ocean-woodsy note as well🌈🏳️‍🌈

Summer Melody Dry Shampoo: i’ve been looking for a new dry shampoo lately so i decided to give this a try and it’s fantastic ! i’ll probably make another post to talk about it in full. the scent is honeydew and vanilla and it has a very warm sandy vibe to it 🌞

Sun Ripened Raspberry: i had to get this for my mom, she used it when i was a kid so one SAS i got her one. she said it was good but she wasn’t crazy about it but then used the whole bottle in less than a year! guess she liked it more than she remembered 😂 it’s a sweet and perfumey raspberry scent and a classic but retired scent at Bath & Body Works ❣️

Forever Red: i have been obsessed with this scent since eighth grade when it came out for the first time. it’s a sophisticated night-out type scent but softer than the other scents i describe that way. the pomegranate and floral scents are most prominent but it has a rum and oak that give it a sultry vibe as well. 💋

Bright Christmas Morning: was bummed to not get this one in the body spray but it was sold out when i got there so i grabbed it in the lotion. they really did well capturing the scent of the home fragrance in a body care with this one. it’s fruity but keeps the holiday vibe to it. the blood orange note shines through and it’s amazing 🍊🎄

Black Tie: this one is definitely cologney and sophisticated. a night-out scent for sure as well. the sage gives it an almost aromatherapy vibe on the dry down 🤵🏼‍♀️

Winter Cherry Blossom: if you’re looking for a Japanese Cherry Blossom adjacent scent, this isn’t it. i’ve heard this one is like a winter spin on Cherry Blossom. it’s very old-timey perfumey, with a wintery floral scent. 🌸❄️

Sapphire Moon: this one is much more bright than the spray, the pear shines through more than the other notes 🌕

Pink Lily & Bamboo: this one was on my list with a question mark for SAS but as soon as i smelled it i knew i had to get it! it has the same bright floral vibe as Candied Violet Sorbet, with a strong bamboo underlying that gives it a truly planty scent. i love it and can’t wait to use it this spring and summer 💐🎋

Sport: my lovely partner picked out one thing for himself throughout the whole store! i had a feeling he’d like this one though. it’s citrus and mint with woodsy undertones on the dry-down 🍋🍊🏀

Winter Candy Apple: a holiday staple, and mine is about gone! it’s a fruity floral, but the cinnamon gives it a spicy holiday feel. 🍎

Wrapped in Vanilla: my Blush Cardigan obsession led me to ignore this one initially, but it’s very nice. if you want just a straight-up toasty vanilla creamy scent this is the one for you! 🍨

Coffee & Whiskey: picked up a backup, because i’m obsessed. it’s the perfect spiked coffee scent and half of my family is obsessed with it as well! ☕️🥃

Brown Sugar & Fig: a staple in my collection and my body cream was running low. this is a retired scent from Bath & Body Works that i grew up using from my moms collection when i was young! it’s a favorite of mine in the fall. it’s a warm sugary scent with notes of fig, coconut milk, and brown sugar 🍂

Blackberry & Basil: this one was sold out in the body spray as well which was a bummer but at least i got it in the cream! it’s a little different from the hand sanitizer that comes out in the fall, with a more floral, herby vibe to it but still has a sweet blackberry note! 🌿

[lavandevanille]

March 15th

Today has been very distracting in many ways so I'll only update on my indoor plants. I've just started on giving my room a complete makeover (which is a whole exhausting month-long project on its own) and could finally shift my SG3 units over to my new dresser.

The photo frame is also part of my makeover - I'd spent the entire morning replacing my old photos with vintage floral prints and pressed flowers for a cottagecore... adjacent vibe. Amazing how a few small changes is enough to soften and comfy up a room!

My flower plants are doing pretty well. And it even looks like calendula and lavender pod #1 might very soon begin sprouting up their first true leaves! Exciting!! 🥰

As for my mints - lemon balm and both of my apple mint pods are sprouting up happy lil dots! Still no action on peppermint, so I popped the peppermint pod into a cup and hope that helps the germination along. We'll see how that goes~💕

Outdoor plant babies are doing excellent~ The basil twins Bijou and Bougie will be three weeks on Sunday, and Bougie is a gift for my sister, so I figure weekend will be the best time for a bit of repotting and independence 🤭

[notactuallybcbs]

Confessions

Just so we're clear, I'm not BlueCross BlueShield and given my content I'm surprised anyone would believe otherwise.

My profile icon literally contains a pentagram and an upside down cross, so I'm pretty sure it's clear that I personally believe that insurance is either Satan Incarnate™ and or is Satan adjacent.

No ruthlessly profit focused corporation would EVER do anything I've twote about, even though they should.  I mean, if nothing else, it could ensure their punishment in the fiery pits of Tartarus, Helheim, Nothingness, Hades, the DMV during COVID lockdowns, Purgatory, the SSS during COVID lockdowns, the Upside Down, Hell, The Backrooms, the Cosmically infinite cycle of undesirable rebirth, or the SSS during COVID lockdowns, would be slightly less severe, given the many allegedly unethical practices of both BlueCross BlueShield and the medical insurance industry as a whole.

As an example, see the lawsuit that the company with enough money to challenge god(s) in a court of law, a court of law where arguments are discarded if they contain nothing less than the sickest of rhymes and the dopest of beats, settled a lawsuit that claimed BlueCross BlueShield were in violation of antitrust laws.

That sounds suspiciously like they looked at the lawsuit, said, "Damn, no amount of lawyers we pay to keep on staff to get us out of this kind of hot water could ever prove we didn't do that thing we definitely did…  Alright, we're gonna lose.  Just throw the petty cash card at them and we'll move on.  Does it still have $2,700,000,000 on it from last week?  That's probably enough.  Next order of business, all in favour of an orgy in the Scrooge McDuck-esque vault we've filled with $100 dollar bills, gold plated coins, $420 dollar bills that we had the Delaware Federal Mint print exclusively for us, and the unethical amount of Aderall XR we've been hoarding?"

Like, I'm not saying that they actually did that, claiming that would be wild AF ya'll.  But it's the vibes I'm getting from what happened.

What was I talking about?  Oh right!

I would pay so much of my meager wealth to watch two individuals versed in the law and trained in lyrical flow by rap battle champions actually do this.  Actually, scratch that like a record, teach the best rap battler's in the entire world American legal precedents and courtroom etiquette, then have them challenge each other on famous legal cases.

Could you imagine if Judge Judy had to preside over a courtroom where the only additional rule was "All parties' arguments shall be presented exclusively in lyrical verse, and shall be, per previous precedents established and upheld by both this and higher courts, held in contempt for slant rhymes, unsportsmanlike behavior, and disses against anyone's mother, be they anyone present or otherwise.

The plaintiffs shall be allowed the use of any lyrical weapons they may so choose, but must, per this courtroom's tradition, be spoken in time to some chosen track, which shall be selected by each respective party and those they represent in advance"?

Like, at the end of each lawyer's case she'd slam her gavel in time with the beat and say "the defense/prosecution *slam* *slam* must now *slam* rest", which is a great joke because of "rest" being a musical term.  Best thing I'd ever see.

The holiday special could be Judy swapping their tracks beforehand and them having to think on their feet.

Wait…

There was something more important happening in this profile po- OH!

The medical insurance industry has chosen to gamble on the lives of individuals who are the protagonists of their own stories in the name of profits.  Forgive me if I think that the "house" should simply take the loss with dignity.

As Marie-Antonette said, "Let them eat [the rich]."

[m0e-ru]

hi ive been binging your blog a lot recently. i rlly adore the sheer effort you've given to these dumbass fucking characters that otherwise get such little people even attempting to appreciate or engage with them beyond very shallow depths. as someone who only really got into the p4 games relatively recently (2022. my only remembered experience with the series beforehand was like a couple episodes of the the p4anim years ago and playing p5 in 2016/2017) and kind of being shell-shocked by how characters like marie and teddie and namatame were perceived by the overall fanbase once i started engaging with it more i really appreciate all the writing and analysis and art and other shit you do for them. even the gas station attendant, a character i overlooked initially, i've come to love because of all the time and energy you put into picking them apart like a dead frog in a science class

uh yea idfk i feel generally vindicated by seeing the way you characterize these bitches. especially marie as someone who felt like a lot of her interesting aspects were evaporated by the fandom (somewhat because of p4ga i feel but but still) and wanted to see more silly fanart of her (and shumarie/soumarie/whatecvrer the fuck that wasn't just kind of surface level romance becuz i rlly do love their dynamic w how i see bancho in my head. idiots who dont know how to properly express themselves w one repressing themselves to adopt a likable persona and the other unable to shut the fuck up much to their own detriment. im not gonna get over that fucking "marie makes everyday sunny for him" post ever i think) so uh keep on keeping on and ill continue to like your posts and something

anyway dumb stupid cringe fucking rant over. i apologize if i come off like a loser i dont use this website and idk the general tumblr etiquette. im pretty sure shit like this shouldnt even go here but . dont need to respond to this i just wanted to yell into the void cuz i appreciate this account. rest of this will just be panels of marie and teddie and bancho from some of the p4g anthologies i own that i wanted to share in the off chance that you also dont already own said anthologies n have seen them befor. these r only from the last ID antho and the dengeki one because those r the only 2 i have proper pictures of

hai i read this ages ago and i wanna get back to it by saying youre so awesome possum forever and ever dont worry about your ettiquette because getting 3 essay worthy paragraphs of you talking is basically everyone ive met in the tumblr nation

another thing i remember is that a bestie also loved your offerings esp the last one because those two look so lalala AUAHUAHA okay i should answer this ask properly now that i have the time 🏃🏃🏃🏃

can we give it up for the bingers and blog skimmers !?!?!?! you guys are such an interesting breed i remember trying to do that in 2018 i can already recall the thrill going through my blood im so honored to see people doing that and moreso coming to me to tell me about it WAHAUHAHA 🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶

this gas station (blog) really is catered to the niche market of all time also because the way my brain is wired to just go in the dustiest nooks and corners of a community and thrive and live there. i AM the bug you see when you lift up the rock . hai . i'll do anything for these poor poor characters being tossed around like hot potato with people who dont bother understanding thing or even try to pick them up at all. also im getting such a kick every time someone tells me i got them into appreciating the attendant or even iznmi more OR in a different way. thats why im here bros . me when i do my JOB !!!! 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

the way fandom handles shipping has always irked me because theres just SO much you can do with two characters than just make them hold hands. what if there was blood invovled, you know . /starts pacing around the room / you know im glad you know the know it's so cool you know /shaking you/ im glad i have a post that's affected you so much like i thought it was just a silly caption at the time and seeing it after 2 or 3 years is like "YEAHH i cooked this " and im glad you brought it to me hehehe

i hope this gas station brings you joy and you keep coming back for more etc etc and please know i really am happy to see you around in whatever branch you show up at 🫡🫡🫡 /explordes

[thekitschdiet]

my take on the literary masterpiece, the chic diet

Firstly, I am no one. It’s part of my charm. My fifteen minutes of fame was years ago, when I had an instagram niche meme page. I didn’t even take any brand deals! And my posts averaged six thousand likes! Anyhow. I am hardly literate and well hydrated and carry a small sephora-CVS-hybrid worth in my mini tote bag. Here is my guide on how to live like me, the intermediate kitsch-rat, aspiring influencer. But like, in an apathetic, somewhat dissonant, ironic way. I like saying I live by dogmatic principles. But a lot of it, um, is just eating disorder rituals. But that’s not really important. You’re as hot as you say you are, and as much an authority on what you write so long as you say it with, you know, conviction. It’s kind of venerable how fucking delusional I am, actually. Giving any sort of advice like I’m anywhere close to the ritzy ideal of the amphetamine-areyouami label-american. New York, ideally. West Village, preferably. But I guess the kind of guide I can write is better suited to someone living in a suburb, in a house with the twelve-paned windows. I always thought those were so chic. SO quaint, in a somewhat luxe way. Like, Connecticut vibes. My parents used to drive me up there as a child to buy books and ice cream. Nowadays I’d opt for a matcha latte with novelty ice cubes, but I guess at the time it was pretty sweet. 

Because I popped a Vyvanse at like, 10pm, this next little bit could go one of two ways. I will write the most articulate, brilliant piece of literature of my life. Magnum opus, if there was a skinnier word for it. Or, I will get wrapped up doing something like folding all my last-season knits (which is part of my look, okay! I don’t have a job!) and fixating on a paragraph on how a girl’s collarbones are almost as identifying as a fingerprint, or a signature. I’m not a graphologist, but if you write your A’s with the little tail on top (like on a computer), you’re probably a snake. Nothing personal, just an observation. Also, I do have a biology final to study for. Not that I’m super anal, or even particularly committed to academia, but even in my precariously manicured (read that as separate terms; I did a good job on my nail polish, okay? But I happen to also be teetering on the brink of an epiphany or a collapse. Hence the use of the word precarious.) state, I know it’s important enough I can let one of my countless side-quests sit idle for a couple more days. 

The first section seems only natural to be about hydration. And the whole idea of drinking things, really. There was a section in The Chic Diet about Adderall dry-mouth, which deeply resonated with me. Once I bit off a chunk of a Nivea Strawberry Shine (my favorite lip balm, more on that later) and swished it around my mouth. Didn’t help. Really, really didn’t. Anyway, I suppose that even if it served no purpose for combatting my prevacatingly ingenious cottonmouth solution, I was able to milk a sentence or two out of the experience. “Do it for the Vine”, all grown up! And wearing bananapapaya resin hoops too. Side note, that Etsy shop is a parasocial enemy of mine. It stems from jealousy, which sucks, but hating from inside a club I’m adjacent to is much healthier than being a hateful individual towards people I would, you know, interact with. Daily. Or something. I stopped going to therapy because I felt stupid about going and I don’t live in the right kind of town to warrant vacuous $300 hours. Bitching about my well-adjusted parents and how desperately I wished my anxiety would just “go away” was plainly gross, and a waste. Like, pretty sure almost every problem I have could be solved by a couple painful conversations taking place during a hurricane. Such a shame it doesn’t rain much here. Anyhow, I digress. 

Staying hydrated. It is essential to my character, my persona, if you will; to never be without either an elegant metal bottle (I’m loyal to the smooth enamelled S’well ones, printed to look like marble or a semi holographic solid) or a little 16oz tumbler with a metal straw. Hydroflasks were some of the worst things to happen to society. I want to preface this claim with the fact that I wanted one in the same way a teenage girl wants a new iPhone so she can keep up appearances with her dermatologist-dad friends who still have the XR, by the way. But I ended up spending the money on like, a minidress at Brandy Melville before it fled my city. Or maybe a Fresh Sugar tinted lipbalm. For the better, even though the dress has a busted zipper now and the lipbalm tube has inevitably gotten dinged and dented by the other contents of my mini-totebag. Unlike a car, though, a couple scuffs on your laptop or your luxury lipbalm tube looks kind of cool. Like, you’re not someone who values the pristine, unused quality of an item that was ambiguously intended to be used versus displayed on Instagram.  Now, I’m wondering why this paragraph about hydration is so fucking impossible to stay on track for. I literally drink several litres of water a day, and more tea on top of that. And sometimes an almond milk latte if I can budget it in. Not that I’m so anorexic I can’t afford a 45cal latte. They’re just not that important to me. Anyhow. Drinking lukewarm (on the cool side) water is better than ice-cold. Partially because I just get it out of the tap of my ensuite and I can’t be bothered to wait for it to run cold enough every time, and it just seems wasteful. Plus, there is something so.. skinny about drinking water at an “obscure” temperature. Trust me, I want to know why my thought process is like this too. My favorite tea is blueberry tea foraged in a side aisle at my local supermarket. I love a good commercial, high-end steep or fruit infusion as much as the next girl. Maybe more. My pantry is filled with tins labelled with things like “emerald jade organic” and “magic potion”, which is really just currants and butterfly pea flowers. But there is a necessary glamor about drinking dirt-cheap tea on the daily. Seriously, a box of 25 sachets is like, $3. At a higher point with my, um, Adderall problem, I spent like several times that on pills. I didn’t really need to include that, and could have linked the price point to the cost of a drugstore lipbalm, but I wrote it in. And I’m married to it, stubbornly, as all amateur writers should be when they wittle in a somewhat indecorous little joke. This tea is sooo good because it has a strong fruit-reminiscent taste (not as sweet as a fresh blueberry, but who wants that anyway?), it’s zero-calorie, it’s the most GORGEOUS color ever. The latte, the third drink in my little trifecta, is nothing special. But necessary. The trick is to use a milk frother to whip up sugar free syrup with instant coffee and a little bit of hot water in a glass. It’ll make the most luscious foam.. Top it off with almond milk. My dad is a coffee purist, owning both an upstairs keurig AND a downstairs one (among other more analogue methods, but I can’t name-drop, so what’s the point?), so he hates this drink. Now, calling oneself a plebian is so unglamorous and teetering on self-deprecating territory, dangerously close to insecurity. But I can use it here because I am at least posh enough to have a different pair of earrings for every outfit I could possibly come up with, and I only wear Patagonia if I am in a situation where I just have to wear fleece. Like I was saying. It’s such a simple drink, certainly not a delicacy, and… I had a joke about the word plebian but I keep getting up to refill my water and I fear I have forgotten about it. 

Next section; the importance of a good tinted balm

In the intro I alluded to how a girl’s collarbones function essentially as an identifier, the way a signature or fingerprint does. This is a lie, or at least an exaggeration. But one’s ultimate tinted lipbalm is  actually extremely indicative about who you are, as a person, as a member of society, even… 

If you are loyal to Dior Lipglow, I have a couple questions. One; did you shoplift one tube, once, and refill it with cheaper stuff afterwards? I did that. I consider it one of my better-kept secrets, but now you know. Might as well explain the catalyst for my parent’s first separation now, and the horrifying experience that was meeting my dad’s Manhattan sugar baby (?) at the age of thirteen, wearing an overalls dress from, like, Topshop or something else equally embarrassing. .. Kidding. I digress. It’s such a fancy lipbalm, and good too! It smells like thin mints! But I could just never justify cell phone monthly installation payment money on something I will inevitably talk off. I do own three, but two I stole (before I lost the nerve, somewhat unfortunately) and one, a boy(not)friend bought for me. This is not something I feel any remorse about, because his house was easily four thousand square feet and his sisters had a dedicated all-glass room for their shared peloton. Oil money. Ugh!

My personal favorite lip balm, and I have tried a frightening amount, has got to be the Nivea Fruit Shine collection. The frosted one is shit-ugly. Hideous. But the strawberry one is the love of my life. It’s such a pleasant red, looking healthy and rejuvenated and really completes any look. Only downside is it will always, hopefully not always, remind me of Charles. Kissing Charles, specifically. And him asking me what lipbalm it was, because he knew I was somewhat frivolous and definitive and would have a very long answer. But for whatever reason, I simply stated it was from “out of town”. Not really sure why I said that, but it plagues me (minorly) to this day. Of all the things to make up.. .. The peach one is a perfectly demure spring classic shade. Cherry exists too, but the only tube I have ever had the fortune of owning was purchased in Costa Rica and lost somewhere on the way home. Honestly tragic, it was the juiciest shade. Blackberry is perfect too, but I have to layer it with either peach or untinted lipbalm to avoid what I imagine TooPoor would choose if she believed in tinted lipbalm. I don’t mean this hatefully, I think she’s a queen, but super dark, smudgy makeup suits the eyes better in my opinion. Or something. Or something.

Afraid to bore the reader, I have to move on now. Maybe at a later date I will release an addendum on my ultimate lipbalm buying guide. But also, that is so deeply personal (and everyone needs the excuse of “hunting for the perfect staple shade!!”), so it is really not my place to have any authority on something so intimate and subjective. Etcetera. 

Moving on; Decorating your room

Here is a section I lifted out of my memoir document. It fits, because as enigmatic as I hope I am, I am also quite unchanging.

 I just pushed three hangers and two tiny strappy tops with the tags still on, off my bed. Most nights, all, these days, actually; I spend in my large but cluttered bedroom. I have a little ensuite with a jetted tub I’ve never used because I just never get around to it. There’s a plush grey rug, spanning the expanse of the room (covering an ugly cherry wood that doesn’t match the rest of the house; no clue why. I never asked, and the previous owners were eager to sell so they could finally ditch this town and retire in Montreal for the bagels, or Hawaii for the monk seals. Point is, I’ll never know) with loose beads and loose pills and little shards of glass from plier-crushed beads. I vacuum every day. The whole room tells you exactly the kind of person I am; the clutter I possess, the encapsulation of the projects I start, start, start and the hours I don’t sleep for and the clothes I tried on (these to sell, these to cut up with kitchen scissors; thrifted lululemon and aritzia and heaps of knits and plaid fabric..) I would not say the room is a mess. Lived in, maybe. Chopsticks and mugs and gum wrappers. Single dangle earrings. I just finished the last of my Creme Brulee eos lipbalm; disguised as a relic of 2015, I was gifted it Christmas of ‘20. I think my next waxy conquest will be a tinted Burt’s one I palmed a while back, before I lost the nerve. Peering around the room you will see shopping bags strewn about the mouth of my walk-in closet. Every surface has something shiny or colorful stacked up on it. Cluttered, busy, but intentional. Except for the walls, which are bare. Bare and gray and miles-tall when I lie flat on my back, high out of my mind, willing things to change but knowing I’m responsible for a first step I will always be too scared for. Bare, pristine, no gumtack. Empty, Like they’re waiting. I wait around a lot. It makes sense. That was an awful lot of words about my stupid blank walls when truly it does not bother me that much; I really just don’t get around to it. I have other things on the ground to tend to, like post-email nausea, addressing envelopes, marrying wire and bead.  Writing a document I care about because I am determined and I am alive, alive, alive, goddammit. 

Excerpt over. The memoir is coming out when I get famous, or something earth shattering happens. Like I become the world’s least remarkable entrepreneur, and I get retweeted by Colorpop. I don’t want to be the next Elizabeth Wurtzel. I read two of her memoirs one restless night, absorbing it to make up for the nutrients I didn’t that day (you can laugh. I think that is pretty clever), heart breaking a little bit. She writes about her struggles so intrinsically, you either get it, or you don’t. Anyway. She had the books and the fame from it, and she wrote more memoirs than I think a single person should. That is admirable. Aspirational, even. But I do not want to be like her. Where was I? Oh. Yes. Decorating/adorning/filling your room. Your room should serve as the kind of place to watch a movie (if you believe in film. I don’t) and put on ridiculous glittery eye makeup, or smoke an ~artistic cigarette~ or stay up all night on the phone, which is different from staying up all night simply on your phone. Chatting with someone you are tepidly in love with is much more exciting. Not chic as the whole affair is so juvenile, but fun regardless. It’s somewhere to keep your worldly possessions, too. I know I have a lot! Also, it is kind of thrilling to hide things in your room in little crevices only you know about. Now, unfortunately, everyone reading this will know too. But, like, I trust you not to really.. do anything about it. I keep my extra juul pods in the sliding box my apple pencil came in. That box is almost more useful than the pencil itself. I’m somewhat morally opposed to the iPad. Whole culture is so embarrassing! I have a tea tin with an ounce of golden teacher shrums in it. This is tossed in my closet among tins filled with other things, like lace trim and buttons. Which makes it actually a pretty terrible hiding spot, I see now… Anyhow. Keeping benign little secrets like that is so fun. You can tell I don’t have siblings. I sort of wish I did, but it is easier to believe there is something aristocratic about being an only child. Not sure if older-sister me would be egalitarian enough to share things. But that’s prophesying, which is kind of a waste of time. I live in the now, in a room positively cluttered with meaningless things that mean the world to me, chewing on my lip because my mouth is just so dry and 5gum is just not an after-8 indulgence. To live truly kitschly, you have to have somewhat hideous decor. Now, do not confuse dissonant, or incoherent, with what I mean by “hideous decor”. The kitsch room has as many surfaces to look at as possible, while also shying away from too many shelving units. Then you risk your room looking like a storage unit or something. When my mom renovated (re: paid someone to do it) our New York house so we could sell it, all our stuff was stacked up in a Cubesmart self storage. It was sort of horrifying, seeing my childhood home reduced to plastic storage tubs piled what felt like thirty feet high. Anyway. It’s just not an  inviting way to store things; I imagine it makes your room look like your stuff is all trapped in gelatin. The more fussy, tiny things you have out in the open, the better. Nail polish. Earring trees. Bowls full of rings and lighters and water color pans perched on your windowsill. A rack with the tackiest assortment of knits and bucket hats and baguette bags. And so forth.. Quickly surveying someone’s room is so telling. Bonus points if all your books are spine-in, except for your favorite ones, because you don’t want people to get the wrong idea. (that you read). 

[manifestoonmoralmanlove]

What will be in my bag? Pre-ordered Manga. Straight and Lez edition.

Here’s a list of English-released manga I’ve currently got on pre-order, and manga series I ordered before but won’t be continuing with the series.

As a note: Some of these titles have been released but I have not received them yet due to a issues with covid backlog effected how things are released.  I personally find that if you pre-order it tends to get you manga quicker.  It seems there is more pressure to keep up with the new release schedule than chip away at the backlog.

I’m starting with the stuff I’ve already read some of and confirmed enjoyment, then stuff I’m shooting in the dark for, and finally series I have tried recently and have discontinued.

Heteros

My Androgynous Boyfriend

Story & Art by: Tamekou      Publisher: Seven Seas

It is rare for straight shit to end up in my library but My Androgynous boyfriend is an exception that will surprise no-one since it’s pretty queer adjacent.  This story is mostly a couple being lovey-dovey between jokes about sexuality and gender but (so far) isn’t problematic at all.  The female lead is quite enjoyable as she’s well-balanced and has agency throughout. There’s even ace representation! It’s very low-stakes, wholesome, and sweet so far. (Volume 3 is set to release in November.)

My Excitement Level: The gentle about to sink into a bubble bath variety

Yuri/Lesbian

Even Though We’re Adults

Story & Art by: Takako Shimura  Publisher: Seven Seas

Takako is also the creator of Sweet Blue Flowers and Wandering son.  I have dipped by toe in to both those series.  I overall find their writing kinda meandering and tepid (might just be me) but technically pretty solid.  I am hopeful for this series since it features adults....if the title didn’t make it obvious.  I was intrigued by the one character being married but the man finding out about the affair quickly and reacting more realistically and interestingly than the average male love interest in a Yuri.  I also found myself relating at bit to Akari’s angst about being unlucky with relationships with women.  I also do enjoy the artwork! This one is the most likely of my followed series to be dropped at some point. (Volume 2 of this manga was set to release in June this year.)

My Excitement Level: Cautious Optimism

For more click the jump!

Kase-san and Yamada

Story & Art by: Hiromi Takashima  Publisher: Seven Seas

This is a series I keep going back to.  While it is the very typical low-stakes bubbly, cutesy School age Yuri...it is a very good version of that.  Just warm bubble bath vibes. (Volume 7 is set to release in February of next year.  I think it was originally supposed to be released this May but was bumped back.)

My Excitement Level: The gentle about to sink into a bubble bath variety

NOW ONTO THE SERIES I HAVEN’T READ BUT I’M TAKING A CHANCE ON!

Adachi and Shimaura

Art: Moke Yuzuhara Story: Hitoma Iruma  Publisher: Yen Press

This, as I understand it, is a slow-burn romance about two delinquent girls.  I have heard good things about the novel and the anime series!  However I prefer manga to novels and don’t have a funimation account so I went to snag it in manga form. (Volume 1 was set to release in February this year and 2 in September)

My Excitement Level: Cautious Optimism

The Girl I want is so handsome!

Story & Art by:Yuama     Publisher: Seven Seas

The premise is a young lady has a crush on a handsome older girl who’s oblivious to her advances.  When she tries to confess she instead gets roped into being the club manager of the basketball team that her crush is a part of.  So it feels like it may end up cycling through 2 jokes and be so deep in the stereotypical manga bullshit you can easily-predict its beats volumes in advance. HOWEVER that is also a premise that is similar to Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun which is legitimately a hilarious series. Also I fucking love butch/stud/masc-presenting women/AFAB people.  So I’m willing to risk “The same Anime bullshit” for good jokes and a cute lezzy romance with a beautiful butch.  (Volume 1 is set to release of December of this year.)

My Excitement Level: Pretty nervous actually.  I hope it works out!

Monologue Woven for You

Story & Art by: Syu Yasaka     Publisher: Seven Seas

A woman gives up on a career in theater gets tangled in a relationship with a woman passionately pursuing theater.  Since it is set between college age women, and appears to be about more personal and mature themes I am interested. (Volume 1 I BELIEVE is supposed to be released in February of next year.)

My Excitement Level: Cautious Optimism

Mizuno and Chayama (No page yet so far as I can tell.)

Story & Art by: Yuhta Nishio     Publisher: Yen Press

Two daughters of feuding families meet in secret.  This is by the same author of After Hours.  I read a bit of After Hours and found it fine but boring since it seemed without conflict.  Conflict doesn’t seem to be in short supply with a story like this!  While I enjoy the sugary-sweet high school lesbian romances...those are not in short-supply. So I am always hungry for something darker, meatier, more mature. (Volume 1 is set to release next February) 

My Excitement Level: Cautious Optimism

5 Seconds Before The Witch Falls In Love

Story & Art by:  Zeniko Sumiya     Publisher: Seven Seas

It appears to be a playful fantasy about a Witch and Witch-hunter who’s antagonism turns romantic.  This may end up one note and stupid...but I’m always hear for queer romances set in high-fantasy and I haven’t read a Yuri where rivals turns to lovers. (Volume 1 is set to release next February)  

My Excitement Level: Low-key

Catch These Hands! (No page yet so far as I can tell.)

Story & Art by: Murata     Publisher: Yen Press 

A former delinquent runs into her high school rival.  After losing a fight to her she agrees to her terms...her terms being to go out on a date with her.  I mean the title alone makes me want to pick it up!  It may run afoul of bad anime humor, but I’m hoping with the fact that it’s full of gay adult delinquents that it’ll be a little different.  (Volume 1 is set to release next February)  

My Excitement Level: Medium-key

Series I have discontinued:

I’m in love with the Villainess

Art by: Aonoshimo  Story by:  Inori   Publisher: Seven Seas

A woman gets reborn into her favorite Otome game but she wants to romance the villiain!  I had heard a ton of great things about the novel but I picked up the manga version. (If the novel is totally different I can’t speak to it.)  For me, the writing is ham-handed, the jokes flop 90% of the time, and the fact the lead’s only personality trait seems to be ~obsessed with a bully~ really dampens this title.  Her advances are so aggressive and unwanted I honestly started feeling bad for a spoiled rich bully.  I will say it’s saving grace is the fact that the lead is masochistically into the villainess’ tsundere abusiveness. For me I hate tsundere romances if framed like, “I like you DESPITE your insults.” It is only tolerable if it’s instead, “I like you cause you tell it like it is. I’m a dirty little pig. Please step on this bad little piggy!”

Our Teachers are Dating

Story & Art by: Pikachi Ohi      Publisher: Seven Seas

Well one reason I stopped the series is that cover you see up there.  The sex in this series is fade to black but FOR SOME REASON the 3rd cover has them both butt naked.  But on a less superficial note, the story is about two teachers who start dating.  And while cute at points, I was just underwhelmed.  I think a part of it, is the fact that this behaves like a stereotypical high school romance...and while set in a high school...these are grown ass women not 15 year olds.  So I have less patience with the, “Gosh when will I get to kiss my girlfriend?” bullshit.  I mean, I would hesitate to call it bad...but it’s just not a good version of it’s brand of bullshit.

Breath of Flowers

Story & Art by: Caly                       Publisher: Tokyopop

Absolute train-wreck, this is hands down the worst Yuri I have ever bought.  The story is nonsensical and all over the place.  There is a love rival who’s trying to break the two of them up so she can get with Gwyn...but then switches mid-gear to put in a lot of effort to bring them together intentionally...but she also still wants to hook up with Gwyn...it’s very ????????????  The main conflict of Gwyn is hiding their gender so they can play basketball on the boy’s team (not well explained) is built up hugely and resolved with a hand flick.  There is a melodramatic moment where a school nurse says more or less, “GIVE IT UP YOU’LL NEVER BE A BOY!” And it’s like “OH SHIT! The fact that Gwyn is on the basketball team is cause he’s a transboy trying to live life as a boy! Oh gosh it makes so much more sense now!”  But the author seems to not even know that trans people exist cause the story bumbles along as if that scene never happened.  The closest we get is at the end Gwyn is like, “Look I’m learning to do make-up on myself to make you happy lawl!” Which is I GUESS supposed to be, “NO NO DON’T WORRY ALL OF GWYN’S GENDER STUFF WAS JUST THERE TO MAKE THE MAIN CHARACTER SEXUALLY CONFUSED WHEN SHE DISCOVERS GWYN’S TRUE GENDER!  HER TRUE GENDER IS 100% CIS WOMAN CAUSE SHE DID MAKE-UP ONCE! IT’S FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!” Like whaaaaaaaaat?  And it ends on a very random scene which doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the story.  Ugh just very bad do not interact!

A White Rose in Bloom

Story & Art by: Asumiko Nakamura    Publisher: Seven Seas

At an all girls catholic school a young woman falls for a mysterious foreign student.  I grabbed this cause it’s gay and I overall like Asumiko Nakamura’s work (she also does Doukyusei, double mints, and others.)  However I was just not grabbed with this title.  I just felt like I wasn’t getting what was making the MC pants on head obsessed with Steph.  Also the lead’s mother tells her that she’s getting divorced and therefore will no longer have money to pay for the university and she’s framed like a super bad person for this.  Like I get why the MC (a teenager) would think that something like that is THE END OF THE WORLD! But I remember them really framing the mom like a selfish bitch for this...when like...it’s well established that her mom and dad’s relationship has been toxic for YEARS and that they TRIED SO HARD to fix it.  OH WELL!  This might be good but it just didn’t grab me in the 1st volume.

I’ll make a post on the BL titles later! Take care and Stay Rotten!

[prairiedust]

The Folklore of Supernatural

Part two of a series I started with this post.

I’m reposting this as the second installment of my midseason hiatus “The Folklore of Supernatural” series, even though it was originally written as kind of a long cracky way of looking at the “sleeping beauty trilogy” of episodes in season 14 (The Scar, Mint Condition, and Nightmare Logic.) The original question I was tagged into was “Is Dean actually dreaming?” and I can not find the original post about this, so I won’t tag anyone in particular (you know who you are and I love you because this was fun to write.) I posted it once in the dead of night with no tags, but I’m republishing it as part of my larger take on folklore as a theme in season 14 of Supernatural. Bear in mind that this was written before Optimism, when it became clear that these were not part of an extended dream-sequence, BUT ALSO before The Spear when it was revealed that Michael could repossess Dean. (I’m going to talk a little bit about timing and writing meta, further on.)

I want to say a couple of things before the cut, too. This is a big old Sleeping Beauty post. I know there’s a lot of SB ideas out there in the metasphere but I’ve deliberately avoided them because I wanted to get my thoughts out here and I am Very Slow. Feel free to tag me into other posts, send me asks, whatever, because I think it’s fun to talk about. However, just because this is a “sleeping beauty” meta does not mean I want to go all the way to the end of that metaphor in this series. This particular post is general audience meta. I can’t tell anyone who might read this that no, you aren’t allowed to see a DeanCas parallel in a meta which relies heavily on a romantic fairy tale and one that was a destiel fandom in-joke after Cas died, at that. I will say, though, that I see it, so if you want to duck out now because I’m a lowkey shipper feel free. Also, I can’t endorse predictions based on meta, either, even my own, even when I think there is a big neon “Texan Star” sign saying “destiel goes here;” there is absolutely nothing stopping anyone involved in the show from making a hard left when the signs said we were going right. So rather than seeing this as a defense of DeanCas subtext, let’s call it an experiment in close reading. If nothing else, it will be fun. (Bear in mind that I am a massive dork so my definition of fun involves Charles Dickens.)

Aaand... here we go.

Is Dean asleep, and have the last three episodes (The Scar, Mint Condition, and Nightmare Logic) been a dream? How can we possibly “answer” that question at this point in the show?

We’re trying to speculate about a text that is a constantly moving target. If, for instance, you start to read the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and you know from a blurb on the back of the book that she was an anthropologist who collected African-American and Caribbean folklore, and you get to the place where the protagonist Janie’s second [redacted] ends, but there are a lot of pages left ahead of you, and you think, wow if this happens a third time, I have a theory that the third [redacted, go read this book] would be special based on what I know about folklore and the “rule of three,” well by the end of the book you will know whether or not you were right. Janie either finds a third [redacted], or she doesn’t, and it’s either special, or it’s not.

Supernatural has not ended, so there is no way of saying “Oh, the main theme we are supposed to take away from this show is ____.” I mean, we can put big money on “family” but still. With a television show, it’s hard to even say, “The over-arching themes in this season are____” until the season finale, because it is a text that is being written, filmed, and published serially. The fluid nature of subtext in serial literature was something I studied under a Brit Lit professor– she said, when we set out to read David Copperfield, that sometimes themes in Dickens concluded early or evolved late, or didn’t pan out, because Dickens changed his mind or was pressured by readers to maintain a character that he hadn’t planned to keep around (I think that character was Micawber but I can not find a shred of evidence anywhere, even in my notes from my Brit Lit class, because she kind of mentioned it in passing and I didn’t like Dickens very much when I was younger, so obviously I didn’t learn it well.) And even when you get to the end of a Dickens serial, you still might not get closure– he totally rewrote the conclusion of Great Expectations because his friends wanted angst with a happy(ish) ending.

But this particular “sleeping” symbolism that has been pointed out is really, really structurally sound and can be very well supported. What it means is (shrug emoji)

Going back to the first post in this series, the support for this reading comes from an understanding of folk tales. I’ll be primarily using European Sleeping Beauty stories, as that is what is most accessible to an American/Western audience. And, it was deliberately alluded to in the text of the show. But first let’s talk about formula tales in more depth because that is what sets this theme up in the very first episode of season 14.

Michael met with three different beings in the season opener Stranger in a Strange Land and asked each of them “What do you want?” This is in no uncertain terms a formula tale found in folklore all over the world, and you know about the rule of three even if you’ve never actually acknowledged it. In Goldilocks and the Three Bears, for instance, Goldilocks tries two bowls of porridge before finding one to her liking. She tries two chairs before settling on Baby Bear’s chair. She tries two beds before falling asleep in the one that was “just right.” There were three challenges, two of which failed and one that satisfied her. Goldilocks is an original work (and please read the Wikipedia article, it is fascinating how many revisions this story has gone through, and in fact “Goldilocks” wasn’t even the original main character) but it was based on a folk formula and has entered American oral tradition. Similarly, in the German folk tale The Three Little Pigs, the first pig’s house is destroyed because it was made of straw, the second house failed because it was made of sticks, but the third house was made of brick and withstood the huffing and puffing of the wolf. So the pattern in the rule of three is often two challenges that fail or are flawed and one that finally succeeds or satisfies the necessary conditions. For short, I’m going to call this grouping 2/1. In the Michael story, 2/1 is human, who fails, then angel, who fails, then monster, who Mikey likes. In addition, there is a primer to the rule of three in that first scene, just to make absolutely certain that the audience notices it-- Michael has Jamel guess his identity three times.

This 2/1 formula could be just something Dabb did because he wanted to do it. It’s ancient, and Michael is an ancient being. But. Can it also mean that “folktales” is a theme on the show now?

As the saying goes, “Once is an occurrence, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern.” Folklore continues into the season in many different ways.

In Gods and Monsters, the scene where Dean shakes loose and punches the mirror probably lit up everyone who saw it with “mirror mirror on the wall” vibes, from the story of Snow White. The enchanted mirror is such a common “trope” in folklore that it has an index number that folklorists and others use to refer to it in their scholarship– it’s Aarne-Thompson index number D1163. So, another solid subtextual reference to folk tales. There is so much more in that episode about storytelling and retelling and  the concept of sequels, but that’s for another discussion.

We get to The Scar and Jack mentions Sleeping Beauty and no lie I ascended for a full minute. “Sleeping Beauty” is Aarne-Thompson-Uther Classification of Folk Tales number 410 because this is another story that is found freaking everywhere. (I have to make an aside about the use of the term “folk tale” just because it is in my nature not to leave things like this ambiguous– it isn’t completely certain that the Sleeping Beauty we know of Brothers Grimm and Disney fame is 100% for shore an oral tale, or at least isn’t a tale that got a little finessed when it was first written down. See, a guy in pre-Renaissance Naples named Giambattista Basile included a version of it in a collection of child’s tales hundreds of years ago (it’s horrifying btw, cw for non-con at the very least if you go looking for it) then Charles Perrault (of Puss in Boots fame) got hold of it and rewrote it in French, and folklorists are pretty certain that the story of “Briar Rose in the Forest” that the Grimm brothers collected was the Perrault story that had made its way back into oral tradition in Germany. And, like, it’s not a huge reach to say that the history of the Sleeping Beauty story that is explicitly mentioned in the show’s dialogue by Jack is more subtext about how stories are transmitted, how they are told, what happens when they get loose in the wild, etc. That’s how allusions work, and that’s coming up in my third post.)

So, three times means green light to consider “folk tales” an official thing this season, at least for a while. And the cherry on top is that Sleeping Beauty was the third story referenced. It’s neat.

But NOW. On to THE question the OP posed:

Have the last three episodes been Dean’s dream?

I’m going to pass up surface mentions of dream states and solely focus on the actual “sleepers” in these episodes in order to get at the allusion’s architecture.

In Nightmare Logic, the sleeping beauty OP has identified is Sasha’s father, who is locked in a dream-state by a djinn. In Mint Condition, the sleeping beauty is Stuart, who is in a mysterious coma-like sleep after an attack by a possessed chain-saw. In The Scar, Lora is in a sleep-adjacent death-state after being hexed by a witch. (I saw that her name on the iTunes subtitles is “Lora” which is a variation of Laura but spelled this way evokes “of lore” and that was pretty neat. Another tiny detail that bolsters the theme.)

Is Lora really a sleeping beauty, though, and why is that important?

Remember our rule of three pattern that we were given in the premiere– 2/1. Two people in this group will be more similar to each other than to the third. Both Stuart and Sasha’s father are alive, while Lora is technically all the way dead when she is in the sleep-like state. Superficially, Stuart and Sasha’s father are men, whereas Lora is a woman. Just throwing that out there. If I were writing this post for a grade, that right there is called “padding for word count.” But it is also a valid point, so we’re going to use it. Neither Stuart nor Sasha’s father are shown to resume consciousness by the end of their episodes– Stuart not at all, and Mr. Rawlings only stirs fitfully. Lora is revived when Jack breaks the spell. On the other hand, Stuart is never in continued danger in Mint Condition after his “touch and go” operation (he’s presumably safe inside the salt circle) and is expected to recover naturally, whereas both Mr. R and Lora will die/stay dead if the threat against them isn’t neutralized. Mr. Rawlings is similar to Lora because they are both under “medical care”– Mr.R is ostensibly in hospice and Lora is in the Bunker’s sick bay, and to top things off Stuart is the only one who was treated by an actual doctor: Mr. R‘s nurse was a djinn and Cas is not a doctor he just played one on TV.

The thing about close readings is that anything you can argue is probably valid, but one thesis might be better supported than another. I’m really really tired and there might be more differences and similarities that I am missing. But when you’re gathering the evidence to support a theory about a text, you can end up going a bridge too far and you’ll find yourself staring into the void, completely unable to make any progress, so at some point you just have to stake out your foundations and start digging. (Yeah, I mixed metaphors, I mixed three of them, it’s awesome, get off me.)

So. There is more evidence that Stuart and Mr. R are more similar to each other than either one is to Lora. If we apply the 2/1 template, Lora is the character who satisfies the parameter of being “odd man out.” That still might not make her a sleeping beauty for the purposes of answering the “Is this Dean’s dream” question, and here’s why.

(This is the speculation part. I love this stuff, but again I offer the caveat that using subtext to make plot predictions in Supernatural is like trying to write on a cloud with smoke. Anyway.)

If she’s the sleeping beauty, the subtextual message is that Dean might actually be dead (or might have to die to satisfy the condition that Michael is destroyed.) That possibility was brought up in both 14x01 and 14x02, before Dean came back. And eugh no one wants that. It also means that we had to have read these three episodes backwards to find the character that fits the template, because if Lora is a sleeping beauty, and if she is “the” sleeping beauty for subtextual purposes, she actually came first in the series, and you have to run the episodes backwards to get to the 1. That is subverting the trope. However, if you get the thing you want the first time why go on to the other two challenges? There is a lot in this season about calling back to earlier parts of the narrative to contextualize the present– for instance, in Gods and Monsters, Michael says to the werewolf, “You think you were picking me up in that bar?” or something to that effect and then revealed that he was, in fact, the one stalking her. In Mint Condition, we are introduced to the Janitor Victim as a Dean mirror, but we do not know for certain yet that Hatchet Man is a post-Azazel John Winchester mirror, so that scene is given greater meaning by information that is revealed later in the episode. Structurally speaking, it would be fair to say that the information we have now, that Lora the dead girl is “the” sleeping beauty, based on having seen the other two candidates, means a dead Dean reveal has been primed by the subtext. And like, no thank you?

The other possibility is that Lora, since she was dead and not unconscious, is not “the” sleeping beauty. The third “sleeping beauty” (IF there is one) would show up in 14x06 Optimism. (That title is really stressing me out.) Why would that be Dean and not some other random character? Because if we exclude Laura, the pattern resets from 1/2 to 2/1 beginning with Stuart. Stuart is a Castiel mirror, though, which is not quite right. Mr. R is a John mirror (although that episode is a lot murkier and I’ve said before if someone wants to say he’s a Dean mirror because of the djinn connection I’d agree, in which case BLAM we already have a winner.) [editor’s note, I only left Jack out because we already knew he was dying and thought this subtext was priming a twist, more at ten, this aside has been brought to you by the letters LOL.]

But then, where have the last three episodes come from? If he is dreaming, it could be one reason why the djinn couldn’t wring a nightmare out of him, and that the moment before he killed the monster with a bookend was his subconscious trying to signal to him that something is wrong…

I have said a couple of times that subtext isn’t always predictive. Some authors will have multiple subtexts or will use subtext to straight-up fool you (*waves to thriller writers.*) But the exception proves the rule here– we as readers/viewers rely on subtext to prepare us for what might be coming next. Subtext helps provide that slow build to climax that makes, say, Neville Longbottom’s absolutely stunning house cup win in The Sorcerer’s Stone such a stand-up-and-cheer moment, or that makes Harry Potter’s realization that it is his patronus, not his father’s, that saves his past self in the Prisoner of Azkaban so satisfying. Lack of subtext is the reason there is so much grumping over Mary/Bobby. I mean, they what? Had a walk in the woods together? She called him “old man” once, is that even a term of endearment??? [full disclosure I never liked those two together until after Nightmare Logic.]

And scene!

That up there is where I stopped, and now it’s clear that the person who all this was pointing at was Jack, who fell into a dramatic swoon at the end of Optimism. There were two “sleeping beauties” in that episode, too in the 2/1 pattern of the folktales we’ve discussed– the zombie, who is in sort of a dream state, and Charlie, who is knocked out by fly guy. (Again, fully dead is a red herring and doesn’t count. That’s some positive subtext.) That was basically a lot of words to be able to summarize that, yes, sleeping beauty and dreamstates is a thing so far, but where it was going was hard to predict.

There is something really important that can be taken out of this close reading, though, that is carrying throughout the season.

Jack was the character who actually said the words “Sleeping Beauty.” Jack sort of volunteered himself as tribute. Another theme this season that was made explicit by Subtext Primer aka Mint Condition is that the words characters are saying are more important than they ever have been.

AND ONE MORE THING! The above was written before Unhuman Nature and Byzantium and The Spear! Dean has been put back to bed by Michael! But but Castiel stepped into the Sleeping Beauty deal! Where are we going! There’s no earthly way of knowing, which direction we are going…

Anyway in the next installment of this really long meta that will probably never end I want to explore what the history of the Amero-European Sleeping Beauty brings to bear on this season.

[backpackbrigade]

Backpack Playlist 5/27/19

I no longer have a radio show so this is where I’m gonna be posting my thoughts and playlists! Have fun, who cares. Apple Music/Spotify links at the bottom. Enjoy. 

“Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” - Kate Bush, Hounds of Love (1985, EMI)

A gay icon, not much to say beyond that. We love some extra as shit background vocals.

“Bags” - Clairo, Immunity (2019, Fader)

First single off Clairo’s new LP coming out at some point this year. Literally all I can think when I hear the guitar line in this song is Avril Lavigne, and I say that with the utmost respect and love. Big ups to VW alum Rostam for the production on this track and Danielle Haim for drums - does this mean Clairo is now part of the PC Music squad AND the VW-adjacent rap/indie rock squad??? Her career is definitely pretty strange so far, but I’m hype to see her blow up beyond the world of the Youtube algorithm chewing up and spitting out DIY music videos. This track is also kinda full circle for her - in her big Pitchfork feature last year, she talked about being starstruck after seeing one of the Haim sisters on a plane listening to SOPHIE, and now she’s got one of them on a track. We love growth.

“Kisses 2 My Phone” - Sega Bodega, self*care - EP (2018, NUXXE)

Lona (aka MANIIK aka BABY GAMELAN) shared this EP with me last year, and it’s been rattling around in my head ever since. Some glitchy trap beats and subtly depressing lyrics about sending kisses to your phone and losing love. Scottish experimental pop kid who gets in your ears and won’t leave.

“Even the Shadow” - Porches, Pool (2016, Domino)

A classic, both Pool and their newer album The House (2018, Domino) remind me of a very specific time in my life when I was spending 12 hours in the photo studio every other weeknight and played Porches on shuffle to get through it. Very sad stoner synthy alt-pop for gay kids with lots of insecurity but dreams of 2014 soft pale tumblr aesthetic escapism!!

“Hatin” - Rico Nasty & Kenny Beats, Anger Management (2019, Sugar Trap)

Remember when Rico was just a Soundcloud kid with a stellar remix of “The Race” under her belt?? When I first heard that track in the background of a friend from high school’s Instagram story, I literally dropped my phone trying to lyric search it to see who sang it. Big ups to Lafayette (a newly minted Howard University grad :,) ) for putting me on. Rico’s always been bffs with Kenny, so this collab record isn’t surprising, but I didn’t expect it to be this good!!! Very excited to see her blowing up on Tik Tok rn, maybe she’ll finally get what she’s owed. And she deserves more than just a 2 second cameo in the Old Town Road music video………

“Dig” - Lance Bangs, Lance Mountain - EP (2016, Citrus City)

Reminds me of screamy jangly indie rock from the summer after my first year when I lived in a commune and got a stick and poke from a friend who was three mojitos deep. Also, Citrus City is awesome and we love to support VA labels!!

“Livin’ On a Prayer” - Bon Jovi, Slippery When Wet (1986, Vertigo)

Mostly putting this on here because it’s the ending soundtrack to a great little animated short film I watched recently called WORK (2009) by Michael Rianda. It’s a super 2009 short, but it’s fascinating because it feels like the aesthetic halfway point between Don Hertzfeldt’s Rejected (2000) and Bojack Horseman (2014-) style absurdity. It’s not the subtlest anti-capitalist cartoon out there, but it’s very cute and funny.

“20 Ghosts III” - Nine Inch Nails, Ghosts I-IV (2008, The Null Corporation)

Put this back to back with Bon Jovi because the weird guitar/vocal growls sound like the “Livin’ On a Prayer” digital doo-wops put through an insane pedal filter. Heard it for the first time when I was watching Laura Poitras’ documentary Citizenfour (2014) - she used it for the super haunting opening and closing scenes, and I can’t think of any better use for Trent Reznor’s sad garage dad phase guitar music.

“Guap” - Yaeji, Yaeji EP (2016, GODMODE)

No introduction necessary, hopefully. Gives me third year queer party vibes, and if you know what that means, congratulations. You’re part of an in-group now. Listen when you need subtle hype up music.

“Indica” - Dizzy Fae, Free Form Mixtape (2018, self-released)

When I showed a friend a picture of Dizzy Fae, their first response was that she’s probably from Amsterdam or Berlin or something and floats between secret clubs all week long before performing herself. She’s actually from Minnesota and is way younger than either of us assumed, so big ups to her for projecting the coolest vibes imaginable. Her vocal distortion is a little FKA Twigs, but she knows how to fuckin rap on the rest of the EP. Well worth a full listen.

“Flower Moon (feat. Steve Lacy)” - Vampire Weekend, Father of the Bride (2019, Columbia)

Best track on this new album, imo, but I can’t stop thinking about Vampire Weekend for a completely different reason. When this album came out, literally everyone was making fun of it for sounding like a Paul Simon redux. A lot of people praised it for the exact same reason lol. But Paul Simon’s relationship with cultural appropriation is a lot like Ezra Koenig’s, and not enough people have made that connection. Remember when Paul Simon broke the cultural boycott with Apartheid-era South Africa to make Graceland (1986)?? Everyone shit all over him for not only straight up taking South African music styles and centering himself in their vocal story, but doing it all in the midst of the largest cultural boycott in modern history. It’s a good album, I won’t pretend it’s not, but it’s deeply problematic and disappointed a lot of people who expected something better from a guy who knew what he was doing. Reminds me of 2008-2012 Vampire Weekend!! Anyway, listen to this track for Steve Lacy, if nothing else.

“Ur Phone” - boy pablo, Roy Pablo - EP (2017, self-released)

Another Youtube algorithm kid, boy pablo was in everyone’s feeds because this EP is the perfect summery shimmery gaze-y indie rock. His newer album is a little more uptempo than I personally like, but this track is *chef’s kiss*

“Can the Circle Be Unbroken” - The Carter Family, Can the Circle Be Unbroken: Country Music’s First Family (2000, Sony; original recording 1935)

Really not trying to wade into the country music discourse today, but this track is genuinely full of intense longing and sadness in a way that so clearly changed country/rock music and its relationship to the guitar.

“Before the World Was Big” - girlpool, Before the World Was Big (2015, Wichita)

Their new stuff fucking slaps, and seeing them come to terms with their gender identities is fucking beautiful!! But I always come back to these weird ass nursery rhymes. It’s literally just their harmonies and two guitars, and legend has it if you turn this up to full volume in your car and drive through your hometown, your unrequited high school crush will appear with their spouse and two kids just to rub it in.

“Vroom Vroom” - Charli XCX, Vroom Vroom - EP (2016, Vroom Vroom Recordings)

I mean. It’s Charli’s early work with SOPHIE, you’ve gotta just blast this shit and ruin someone’s life. The return to queer hyper pop over the past few years is the only thing sustaining my fucking mental health.

“Xternal Locus” - Chynna & Oklou, Single (2018, self-released)

Another track Lona played for me after I picked her up from work in DC. Lowkey enough to ***** to, highkey enough to **** to ;)

“Cinema” - Kero Kero Bonito, Totep - EP (2018, self-released)

KKB really did an about face with this record, but I still fucking love them. It’s still sunny and glittery pop, but with a chilled-out vibe. Their intense pop records are like the come up, and this is the chill smoke sesh the day after. Just vibey enough to let you chill out and kick back, but keeps you on your toes with some unexpected samples and glitchy moments.

“Jack the Ripper” - SadGirl, Breakfast for 2 - Single (2018, Suicide Squeeze)

We love surf rock, and that’s all I’m gonna say for this. You either vibe with it you’re bored as shit.

“watch you sleep.” - girl in red, Single (2019, self-released)

Music To Sleep To.

Playlists